James Ramya Rajan

#OhBoy turned 5!

When we told #OhBoy that it was June 1st, he was thrilled that it was his birthday month. Everyday since he started doing a count down for his big day.

Finally last week #OhBoy turned 5! We had a small celebration at our home, followed by one at his school. We adults stopped celebrating our birthdays a while ago, but now we get to vicariously celebrate through him.

To have seen him grow from a hapless little being to one who constantly questions and challenges you on every damn thing, has been a wonderful thing. Sure parenting him has a been taxing, but it has also been one of the most satisfying things as well. I cannot stop to think how blessed I am to be working from home and being available for him every single day.

I thought I will define how he is today in terms to traits, but then I also realise it is a futile exercise as it is constantly changing. For now I am really happy for the times he shows us how thoughtful and kind he can be. I can only hope he hones more of that, than anything else!

Meet my new kicks — a pair of Camper Peu Path sneakers.

From the way I refer to it, you might think I knew about this brand for a long time. But I hardly knew about them when I bought it.

So I was just in the market for some barefoot or minimalist shoes, to replace my current pair of walking/running shoes from Asics. And I want to try on shoes, before buying them. The ones I had in mind — Vivobarefoot and Xero shoes were out of question, since they were available only as an online purchase in Malaysia.

And barefoot or zero drop shoes are notoriously hard to come by here. After a while, last weekend I came across Altra Escalante at The Running Lab in Exchange TRX. I really wanted to try it, but they did not have my size.

After checking out almost all the footwear shops, we aimlessly went into the one belonging to Camper. These Peu Path shoes immediately got my attention and on wearing them, they fit like a glove and it was joy at first try! I wanted another colour, but this one was on 50% off. It had everything I wanted — wide toe box, zero drop and barefoot ethos!

I later went about reading about the Camper brand and their shoes. Seems like a cool company.

It is nice how some shoes find you! So far I am enjoying these Peu Path shoes.

#OhBoy got this done at his school for Father’s Day. Hope I like up to this expectation 😅

This device — Daylight DC-1 is very tempting. It has the charm of a Kindle with its fast refreshing e-ink technology. I am tempted mostly because it will be less strain on the eyes, and good for catching up on reading without much distractions. But then this is a first generation device. I will most probably wait out for the next version, when things settle down on the hardware and software front.

🥾Hiking at Sri Bintang 📍

A month ago when we were trying out Bak Kut The at Sri Bintang, I got to know about the trail nearby. Last week I got a chance to hike it as part of my Thursday hikes. I liked it so much that I went again with my wife on the weekend.

This is a very good beginner trail and traverses through two hills. If you are an absolute beginner, you can stop at the 1st hill and then head back. It would probably take you less than an hour. And if you want to make it hard then you can multiple loops of the 2nd hill.
 
There are two options to go up the 2nd hill, and one of them does not have any tree cover. So if you are planning to do it late in the morning, I would suggest some full sleeves and sunscreen.

The view from the 2nd hill is great.

On the 2nd hike here over the weekend, there was a hiking group who were there with some of their pet dogs. There was a lady who was lovingly carrying her dog!

Just aside the hill top of the 2nd hill there is a beautiful spot where you can picnic. Someone has setup some tables and even left some books for you to read.

And since we were there, how could we not have our Bak Kut Teh 😋

📽 Premalu, Disney Hotstar ★★★★★

Yesterday, we finished watching Premalu. I absolutely loved it. It is such a refreshing and light hearted movie, without being frivolous or over the top. It was very grounded and finds comedy even on the mundane things of life. We laughed all the way through — what a fun writing it has.

The story is a very generic story, of a boy and girl across different strata falling in love. But the entire treatment of setting up their ways of life, how they cross each others path and then become intertwined is all done so well and in a new way that you are sitting there and watching a slice of those lives. The movie begins and ends in a matter of fact manner, so there is no introduction or climax scene as such.

And all this wouldn’t have worked out without the cast. Just spot on. The leads Naslen and Babitha have lived their roles, that you just don’t see them as actors. And everyone of those supporting cast, support the leads so well, that you left wanting for more.

#OhBoy made this at school for Mother’s Day!

My company @nfnlabs.in does a monthly curation of interesting tools and services that we come across. Here is this month’s curation.

nfnlabs.in/blog-deta…

#OhBoy is learning to enjoy road trips, particularly those breaks 😊

Owing to a system malfuntion, the Air Asia staff at Lombok, Indonesia had to hand write every boarding pass for the flight to Kuala Lumpur 

Summited Mt. Rinjani yesterday (22 Apr 2024) at around 6.15am. I hope to write more about the trek when I am at my desk and have recovered from assault.

The Mt. Rinjani trek starts this weekend. Though I’m as prepared as I can be, still feeling the butterflies!

Now onboard the train to KLIA2

#OhBoy and the case of 🖕

Last week, it was just another day of vacation that was all fun, until we sat down for lunch. #OhBoy was arguing with my mom, I forget about what. But something she said irritated him a lot and he showed her the middle finger. 😮

This was not his first time. He did the same a few days ago, and I let it slide, thinking I misconstrued his gesture. This time, there was no doubt. There was a flash of anger in my face, but I was also sure that he was just showing off his anger, without knowing the actual meaning of the gesture.

I asked him what it was and where he learnt it from. Thus started our tussle. The entire lunch was a crying session, with him not wanting to talk about it or telling me where he picked it from. He switched excuses between — he does not remember, he does not want to tell, it meant a big heart, he read it in a dinosaur book, he dreamt about it etc. I kept at it, without shouting at him. I warned him that if I don’t get to know, then I will have to tell the school about it.

He clearly felt cornered. He understood it was a mistake, but did not want to reveal where he picked up this gesture from. At some level, I am amazed by his grit to not tell us the source. I wish he puts this grit to good use in his life.

He took his afternoon nap, under heavy threats and discussion. I spoke to my wife and also ended up reaching out to, what I call, my parenting council ¹. I am writing down here the highlights of the points they told me, so it is helpful for those in similar situation.

1. Don’t dig into the source too much, as these days there are a lot of stimuli, and it will be pointless to get the the origin of this gesture. And also you may never find out.
2. Tell that the behaviour is unacceptable and in the family we are not hurtful or unkind to anyone.
3. Make them promise this will not be repeated.
4. If it happens next time, don’t react immediately, but bring it up later when settling down and tell that the behaviour was bad and not acceptable
5. Talk about the anger and how they feeling and help them express it in a better way. Anger stems from a feeling of loneliness, not physically but emotionally no one is understanding them.
6. Learn to stop ending arguments in one sitting and learn to stop and start conversations about it at a later point in time. Make him understand that while you are stopping the probe about it for now, it is still pending and you are awaiting for an answer. This will learn to take him, process and have the confidence to get back at a later point in time.
7. This is just the beginning, brace yourself to do this routine again and again.

Armed with all these pointers, I woke up him from his nap and told him that I am letting go of the request for source, but I want him to promise that he will not do it ever again. And among us, no matter how difficult it is we will tell the truth and answer questions honestly. I also told him that I am not angry with him, but just trying to explain him what is right and wrong.

He seemed to be very relieved. He was all going overboard with his niceties in the evening! 😂

#Parenting

Latest video from Paranjoy’s team. Their musical take on the current Indian prime minister.

#IndianPolitics

🥾Last practice hike before Mt. Rinjani 🌋

On Sunday, we did our last practice hike before the next week's trek at Mt. Rinjani. We decided to start 6am at Bukit Gasing, since we wanted to practice the use of head lamps and hiking in the dark.

The hiking in the dark went well and 4 trips of the stamina hill was the limit for me. Otherwise, I felt happy at the way I finished the trek. We completed the 7km loop in 4h. I feel confident about next week's trek now.🤞🏼

The hike was immediately followed up by a breakfast at Kanna Curry House, Petaling Jaya 📍

Finally tasted Bak kut teh

When we got to know that we will be moving to Kuala Lumpur, I went on a spree of watching YouTube videos about places to eat and dishes to explore. That is when I first heard about Bak kut teh in Mickey Chen’s video.

Bak kut teh is a pork dish cooked in broth. It is very popular in Malaysia and Singapore. I has its origins among the Hokkien and Teochew community. The name translates as “meat bone tea”.

And when I landed here and told people that I wanted to try it out, almost everyone warned me about the “herbal taste” of it. I really wanted to try it, but with someone who knew a good place to go, how to order. I never found that guide.

Last week, our wonderful Chinese neighbour came by with some fruits for our son and when asked to partake a snack, she said she was heavy with the Bak kut teh breakfast. So natually I enquired about the place and told her, I would like to join her next time.

That conversation led to me finally I tasted my first Bak kut teh today and loved it. We went to a place in Seri Bintang. It was a collection of stalls referred to as Kopitiam 818 Restaurant. I was told this is Klang style Bak kut teh. Just a luscious and flavourful broth that I loved having multiple cups of. The meat was tender from hours of simmering and all the collagen 🤩

It is a very hearty breakfast meal, so maybe next time I will combine with hike at the nearby Seri Bintang trail!

#MalaysianDiary #DiningOut

Such a wonderful piece of life advice that I found this post on Kotte.

Years ago, when I was in my 20s, a bold and artistically daring older friend who has since passed on gave me what I often think was the best advice I have ever gotten. I was worrying what ‘people would think’ of a decision I had made, and she said, “Amanda, There is no audience."

—Amanda Fortini on Twitter

🥾Hiking the Gasing Loop 📍

As a practice for the upcoming Mt. Rinjani trek, we attempted a longer hike at Bukit Gasing last Sunday. This was my 3rd time hiking at Bukit Gasing and it is one of my favourite spots in the city. It is challenging, but it is also straining. It has plenty of trails, so you are never bored doing the same route.

We started at 7.30am and did a longer loop, with multiple trips of the stamina hill.

While the hike was fairly manageable, the weather was extremely humid that day. The dresses were all soaking wet by the end of the hike at 11.30am.

We will be doing one more practice session next weekend here, before we set off to summit Mt. Rinjani!

This week #OhBoy has no school owing to Ramadan celebrations. So we went about our old routine of morning walks and coffee.

And this was his first time enjoying a chocolate filled donut. At each bite he was letting me know that it was very yummy!

🥾Hiking Taman Tugu

After a break on last Thursday, resumed our Thursday Hikes with the fellow diplomatic spouses here in Kuala Lumpur. With most of them beginners, this was a perfect spot to get them started, after warming up at TTDI in the earlier weeks.

It was just us in the entire trail, till be hit the last check point. The day was humid, but otherwise the trek was good.

It was a good start. I hope in May they all get to a level of doing the Gasing Loop!

The Red Vein Flowering Maple that we found in Ranau, Sabah

Day 2 of #mbapr : Flowers 📷

🥾Hiking Gunung Bunga Buah 📍

As a practice for our upcoming Mt. Rinjani hike, we did a long duration practice hike. We started at 6.30am from KL and then started the hike from the trail head at 7.30am.

This was my first time on such a long trail and I was also testing out a lot of my new gear — Hydration Vest and Flask, Compression Pants, long sleeve shirt and new socks. All of them worked well without any complaints. 🙌

The initial part of the trail till the entrance of Bunga Buah was really good. We were walking through the clouds.

The trail after that was full of ups and downs, but what made it really hard were the roots. One had to be very watching where to place the feet and vary of tripping over the broken roots. I was the slow one in the group, inspite of being the youngest. You realise soon that age is just a number and fitness is more of what you practice in your day to day life.

I did not push myself to be fast, but I was not lagging too behind either.

The views were great and the hike got cooler as we reached the top.

Overall it was enjoyable, but I don’t think I would put myself through those roots, until I am practicing for a long hike like for Mt. Rinjani.

At the end of the hike, I finished tired but not sore. I was smiling and strong. I am now hopeful of managing the long hike at Rinjani.

We wiped ourselves and then had a nice lunch and beers at the Chinese restaurant nearby

The Sabah trip begins with a “too late to board” scare and we sprinting to the gate. We spent too much time enjoying that Kaya Toast😂😂😂

Some stars aligned on my hiking luck and I found myself having a spot with a hiking group that had planned everything for summiting Mt. Rinjani ⛰️ this April.

So every weekend is a practice to build up strength for the 3 day trek of Mt. Rinjani. This picture was taken this weekend’s hike 🥾 at Bukit Gasing.

📺 Beef, Netflix ★★★★★

A few weeks ago, we finished season 1 this series. We absolutely loved it. It touches on so many aspects of the mental health and with so much compassion.

This was the first time I was watching Ali Wong and Steven Yeun perform. And both were so good in their roles!

The last episode of the season, was one of the best “tripping” experiences brought out on screen.